ing, undiscovered, the shelter of the glen. Here, under
the overhanging hill, Burl could walk upright, and that for the first
time since quitting the opposite rim of the valley, if we may except
when chin-deep in water he was fording the river. Down the glen, with
twisted current winding crookedly among the rocks, came bubbling a
little brook, thus serving to muffle the sound of the black hunter's
footsteps, as now with swift and powerful strides he ascended into the
depths of the hills. When he came to where the two ravines united to
form the larger glen, he took the more easterly one, which, as before
remarked, led up to a dingle just under the height where the Indians
were camped. For some distance back the trees and bushes, reaeppearing,
had grown gradually thicker and thicker, till here they shagged the side
of the hill with deep and tangled shade. So Burl found the covert which
he had promised himself for a place of ambush--a shade profound as
night, through which, with snake-like secrecy, he could crawl to within
hissing distance of the enemy, and before discovery all but bite his
heel.

"Down, Grumbo!" said the black hunter in a deep under-tone to his dog,
not daring to trust him further in the adventure till he had brought it
to the critical edge. "You wait here tell you hears me holler, den come
a-pitchin', an' let yo'se'f in like de bery ol' Scratch, an' no stoppin'
to smell noses. Do you hear?"

The sagacious animal, as if perfectly understanding what was said to
him, and what his part of the work in hand was to be, crouched down like
a lion in the dark shadows of the dingle, there to wait until he should
hear his master's call. Then tightening his belt to make his knife and
hatchet more secure, and reassuring himself that Betsy Grumbo was in
tip-top "bitin' order," our hero addressed himself to the scaling of the
enemy's height. Half the ascent accomplished brought him almost to the
brow of the hill, where its slower slope abruptly ended in the steep
acclivity which he had just scaled, and here he could distinguish a
faint murmur of voices from above. He was slowly bringing himself over
the turn between precipice and slope, when a large stone, from which but
now he had lifted his foot, supposing it to be the projecting corner of
a ledge, slid slowly from its earthly socket, and with resounding din
went rolling down the steep. Whereat the murmur of voices above him
suddenly ceased, but with admirable presen